Fayette County Mom’s Shower supports parents
Roberto M. Esquivel/HeraldStandard.com
Maria Mackewich of Smock (left) and Elizabeth Lane of Connellsville look through a basket of knit baby hats made available by Alternatives Yes Pregnancy Support Center of Connellsville during the annual Fayette County Mom’s Shower held recently at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus. The event is structured to educate parents about healthy lifestyle choices for themselves as well as their babies.
Ashley and Stanley Zebro speak with Janet Debolt of the Nurse-Family Partnership during the 15th annual Fayette County Mom's Shower event held recently at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus. The annual event brings community orginizations in contact with expecting parents to distribute information on pregnancy, health care, education and child care.
Audra Casino warmly welcomed participants to the Fayette County Mom’s Shower.
The 15th annual event was held recently in the Community Center at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.
“Congratulations. This is definitely an exciting time,” she said. “Enjoy it. It’s a great experience.”
The Fayette County Mom’s Shower, held each year just before Mother’s Day, is open to any parent who has welcomed a child or will have a child during the year of the shower, regardless of their income level.
Organized by local agencies operating as the Mom’s Shower Committee, the event offers education sessions as well as an agency fair and gifts aimed at helping parents of infants and young children.
That included Ashley and Stanley Zebro of Uniontown who are expecting a child in September.
“I was excited about it so I could meet other moms with the same due date,” said Ashley Zebro.
Stanley Zebro already has a son but said, “I never knew about this. I think it will be helpful.”
While she works at a day-care center and helps care for her husband’s son, Ashley Zebro said, “I’m interested in everything because I’m new.”
She learned about the Mom’s Shower from her sister, who has two children and attended the event both years her children were born.
This year’s shower offered education sessions such as:
n Casino, a community education and outreach specialist for United Healthcare and mother of a 3-year-old , talking about the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP.
n Kathy Shimko, a nurse and child passenger safety technician for Fayette County Head Start, who is a mother of seven and grandmother of 19, explaining how to use car seats.
n And Elaine Barry, a developmental psychologist and associate professor of human development and family studies at Penn State Fayette, and mother of five, discussing stress and parenting.
“The secret to stress is coping,” said Barry. “You’re never going to relieve stress.”
She offered some suggestions and advised parents when stress levels get high to remember to thank God for their children.
Barry said, “This is the price I’m willing to pay.”
Other education sessions included safe sleep, nutrition and family budgets.
A press release prepared by the committee about the shower explained, “The event began as a way to influence factors that resulted in high infant-mortality rates in Fayette County as well as low-birth-weight babies, substantiated cases of child abuse and high numbers of teenage pregnancy.”
Local agencies banded together to create the Mom’s Shower, continuing to plan and present it for 15 years.
The nonprofit event, funded through registration fees and donations from participating agencies, businesses and others, was for women only when it started but added men a few years ago.
At one time, the shower attracted 200 to 300 people, but attendance has dwindled in recent years.
Erica Usher, committee chairwoman and prevention supervisor for the Fayette County Drug and Alcohol Commission, said, “Today, we had 116 people registered, and 40 to 50 people checked in.”
Hard times may mean that new parents are at their jobs when the Mom’s Shower is taking place, usually during business hours on a weekday, Usher said, noting some parents may be working two jobs.
“The things that worked in the ’90s may not work today,” she said.
And as agencies deal with budget constraints during these hard economic times, sponsorship of the Mom’s Shower is changing to Uniontown Hospital.
Robin Peskie and Mary Jul Phillips of the hospital’s New Beginnings Birthing Center participated in the agency fair.
They said there will be more Mom’s Showers in the future.
“The Uniontown Hospital will be continuing the Mom’s Shower in a different form,” said Peskie.
“But we want to maintain education and collaboration with different agencies,” said Phillips.
Both women believe in the Mom’s Shower.
Phillips said, “I think it provides the soon-to-be moms with the education they need as to what’s available in the community. It brings awareness to everyone as to what’s out there.”